CONDITION ASSESSMENT OF BRIDGES & RESEARCH NEEDS

Khaled Mahmoud, PhD, PE, President Bridge Technology Consulting

New York City, USA www.kmbtc.com

Outline

•  Techniques for Strength Evaluation Inspection & Vulnerability Assessment Load Rating Strengthening Measures

•  System-wide Vulnerabilities

Bearing Failure Joint Failure Atmospheric Corrosion

•  Specific Vulnerabilities:

Degradation of Bridge Cables Cracking & Deterioration of Orthotropic Deck

•  Need for Research & Monitoring Techniques

Bearing Deterioration

Bearing Failure

Joint Failure

Atmospheric Corrosion

Atmospheric Corrosion

Suspension Bridge Data

Corrosion Protection System

Cable Unwrapping & Inspection

Cable Force Capacity

LLTDL

CapUlt

P

PSafetyofFactor

++

=..

BTC Method for Cable Strength Evaluation

•  Sample size & Random Sampling

•  Basic degradation modeling

•  Cracked wire proportion

•  Broken wire proportion

•  Effect of adjacent panels

•  Wire testing program

•  Analysis of cracked wires

•  Forecast of cable strength

•  Sensitivity Analysis

BTC Method for Cable Strength Evaluation

Random Sample Size Determination-BTC Method

•  WHY RANDOM?

–  Because Damage inside bridge cables is mostly randomly distributed.

–  Crossing and broken wires were randomly distributed in some bridge cables.

–  On some other cables, wire tensile strength was also randomly distributed, because of variations in carbon content.

–  Cracked and broken wires were observed to be randomly distributed.

•  WHY IDENTIFY SAMPLE SIZE? -  To limit invasive wire cutting and splicing. -  To obtain a minimum number of samples to achieve high

level of confidence in estimated cable strength.

Random Sample Size Determination-BTC Method

Random Sampling Plan

SEM - Fractographic Identification of Cracks

Cracked Wire Proportion-BTC Method

•  Cracked Wires are Identified as Probabilistic Quantity

Broken Wire Proportion-BTC Method

•  Broken Wires are Identified as Probabilistic Quantity

Broken Wire Proportion-BTC Method

Wire Test Program-BTC Method

BTC Method Test Program includes:

•  Enhanced Tension Test for Mechanical Properties

•  Tensile Test of Long Wires to obtain better assessment of % of Cracked Wires.

•  Fracture Toughness Test

•  Fractographic Examination of ALL Fracture Surfaces of Wires tested in tension (both short & long).

Analysis of Cracked Wires-BTC Method

BTC Method uses Principles of Fracture Mechanics to determine Ultimate Strength for Cracked Wires:

= Measured Fracture Toughness.

= Crack Shape Factor.

= Critical Crack depth obtained from Fractographic Examination.

( )c

ccracked

aDaY

K

.)(

)(

πσ =

( )cK)(

DaY

ca

Forecast of Cable Service Life-BTC Method

•  BTC Method uses Data of Wire Strength to forecast service life of cables.

•  It relies on degradation of Strength for both:

•  Intact Wires

•  Cracked Wires •  It includes effect of adjacent panels; i.e.,

effect of broken and cracked wires in adjacent panels.

Sensitivity Analysis-BTC Method

•  Purpose of Sensitivity Analysis:

• Identify the key inputs which influence the estimated cable strength.

• Assess whether the estimated cable strength and the decision making process are likely to be affected by uncertainties.

Sensitivity Analysis-BTC Method

•  KEY INPUT For Sensitivity Analysis:

• Effect of adjacent panels

• Proportion of cracked wires

• Ultimate strength of cracked wires

• Proportion of broken wires

Cable Monitoring

Cable Monitoring

Cable Monitoring

Cable Monitoring

•  Visual Evaluation of bridge cable wire condition is

misleading and provides unreliable results.

•  Random Sampling Provides good representation of damage in bridge wire.

•  Fractographic Examination provides the most accurate determination of the proportion of cracked wires.

•  Fracture-based Analysis of Cracked Wires provides accurate assessment of the ultimate strength of cracked wires.

•  Evaluation of Time-dependent degradation is an important component necessary in the decision making process and cable strength evaluation.

•  Monitoring techniques are essential for the condition assessment of bridge cables.

Conclusions

CONDITION ASSESSMENT OF BRIDGES & RESEARCH NEEDS

Thank you!